Lemon Drizzle Cupcakes

Today, Toby and I learnt a very important lesson about baking. If you don't thoroughly mix your cake mixture until it's smooth and has no lumps, terrible things will happen. Well, basically the lumps of butter won't just melt in as you might think, they'll create a heavy middle which means you'll be left with a hole in each cake!

I really should have known better, but was in a hurry to finish these as we were picking up my friend Steph who came to visit.

I'd like to mention this was Toby's messily paper case filling, not mine!

Here you can see the holes mentioned. Actually for this recipe it ended up working quite well, as the lemon drizzle filled the hole and created a kind of gooey, lemony centre. So it's up to you-stir thoroughly and have a better crack at it than me, or try my very own creation of melt in the middle lemon drizzle cupcakes!

Either way, here's the actual recipe:

For the sponge

125 g softened butter

125g caster sugar

2 medium eggs

finely grated rind of 1 lemon

125g self raising flour

For the icing

Juice of 1 lemon

Approx 50g icing sugar

A splash of water, if needed

Preheat oven to 190'C/Gas 5.

Beat the butter and suagr in a bowl until it is light and fluffy.

Add the eggs, lemon rind and flour and beat the mixture thouroughly UNTIL SMOOTH.

Divide the mixture between 12 paper cases in a muffin tray.

Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes until the cakes are risen and just firm.

Remove from the oven and leave to col on a wire rack while you make the icing:

Mix together the icing sugar and lemon juice in a bowl, adding more sugar/a touch of water, until you have the right consistency.

Pour the icing over the cooled cupcakes, then leave to harden and dig in!